AI notetaker for Zoom: AI Companion vs free apps

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Zoom is the one platform where the built-in AI notetaker is often the easiest answer, because Zoom AI Companion comes included with paid Zoom plans rather than as a separate purchase. If you already pay for Zoom, you may already have AI notes and not know it. If you are on a free Zoom account or you bounce between Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams, a free app like Fathom is the better fit.

What follows is both options laid out — Zoom’s native AI Companion and the best third-party notetakers that plug into Zoom — with what each costs, how to switch it on, and which suits your calls. The third-party picks are the ones we ran ourselves and scored in our reviews, not names lifted off a marketplace listing.

What are the two ways to get AI notes in Zoom?

Your two choices come down to whether you pay for Zoom and whether you want anything visible in the call.

Zoom’s native AI Companion. Zoom’s own assistant takes notes through a feature called My Notes, summarizes the meeting, and emails the recap with next steps after the call. Its headline advantage is price: the core note-taking is bundled into paid Zoom plans instead of sold on top.

A third-party notetaker. Tools like Fathom, Otter, Granola, and tl;dv connect to Zoom no matter what Zoom plan you are on, and several are free even on a free Zoom account. Most also cover Google Meet and Teams, so they win if you work across platforms or want a cleaner, more portable summary.

	Native AI Companion	Third-party notetaker
Cost	Bundled with a paid Zoom plan	Free options, any Zoom tier
Setup	Admin + host enable it	Install Zoom app or connect calendar
Works beyond Zoom	No, Zoom only	Usually Meet + Teams too
Output	Summary emailed after the call	Summary in the tool, with exports
Bot in the call	No (runs inside Zoom)	Usually a visible bot; some bot-free

What are Zoom’s AI Companion and My Notes?

Zoom’s native notetaker is the part of AI Companion called My Notes. Switch it on and Zoom captures the meeting, then sends a summary with key points and next steps to the host and invitees once the call ends, and you can ask the in-meeting assistant questions like what you missed while you were away. The notes run inside Zoom, so nothing joins the meeting as a participant.

The reason it is worth a serious look is the pricing. Where Google charges for Gemini and Microsoft charges for Copilot, Zoom has bundled the core AI Companion note-taking into its paid Zoom Workplace plans, which run roughly $13 to $18 a user a month, at no extra cost. So if your organization already pays for Zoom, you very likely already have AI notes available; you may just need to turn them on. Zoom has started adding premium AI tiers for more advanced, agentic features, but the meeting summary most people want is part of the plan you already have.

In day-to-day use, the appeal is that the recap simply turns up: the summary and next steps arrive in the host’s and invitees’ inboxes after the call and stay searchable in Zoom, so there is nothing to open during the meeting and no separate app to check afterward. The in-meeting assistant adds a second layer, letting a latecomer ask what they missed without interrupting, which is the kind of thing only a notetaker built into the platform can do smoothly.

The catches are scope and the account tier. AI Companion is Zoom-only, so it does nothing for your Meet or Teams calls, the free Zoom Basic tier does not include it, and a host or admin has to enable it first. Some regulated environments also restrict the native AI for compliance reasons, so check your policy if you handle sensitive data. You can confirm the current behavior on Zoom’s AI Companion page.

Zoom native AI notes (AI Companion / My Notes)
What it does	Captures the call; emails an AI summary with next steps
Cost	Bundled into paid Zoom Workplace plans, no add-on
Works on	Zoom only
Bot in the call	No — runs inside Zoom
Best for	Anyone already on a paid Zoom plan

So the native route is the obvious pick if you already pay for Zoom and your calls are mostly on Zoom. If you are on the free tier or want one tool for every platform, the third-party route is where most people land.

The best third-party AI notetakers for Zoom

Every leading notetaker plugs into Zoom, and none of them care which Zoom plan you have. Here are the four we would choose between, with how each handles Zoom. We tested the first three hands-on.

Tool	How it joins Zoom	Free plan	Saves video	Our rating
Fathom	Visible bot (bot-free beta), Zoom app	Unlimited	Yes	4.6 / 5
Otter	Visible bot, calendar auto-join	300 min/mo	Business tier	3.8 / 5
Granola	Bot-free, captures device audio	Limited history	No	4.6 / 5
tl;dv	Bot or bot-free desktop	Unlimited	Yes	Surveyed

Fathom — the best free pick. Fathom is the one we would hand to most Zoom users who do not have AI Companion, and it has an edge on Zoom specifically: an official app in the Zoom Marketplace, so setup is a one-click install rather than a separate sign-up. It records and transcribes your Zoom call, then returns a clean structured summary with timestamped action items the moment it ends, on a free plan with no minute cap. It also saves the video and covers Meet and Teams. We rated it 4.6 out of 5, the highest in our testing. See our full Fathom review.

Otter — for live transcription and mobile. Otter joins your Zoom call as a bot and shows a live transcript with speaker labels as people speak, and it has the strongest mobile app of the group for recording in person. On Zoom it overlaps with what AI Companion already does, so it earns its place mainly if you want the real-time transcript view or you also meet off Zoom; its free plan is tighter at 300 minutes a month. Our Otter review and Otter pricing guide cover it.

Granola — for a bot-free Zoom call. Granola is the answer to a problem Zoom users know well: calls where three or four visible “AI Notetaker” bots clutter the participant list. It adds nothing to the meeting, capturing your computer’s audio directly and folding your rough notes into a polished summary. It runs on Mac, Windows, and iPhone, keeps no video, and limits older history on the free plan, but for a quiet footprint on a busy Zoom it is the cleanest option. See our Granola review.

tl;dv — for saved video and clips. tl;dv records Zoom calls unlimited on its free plan, keeps the video, and turns moments into shareable timestamped clips, with a bot-free desktop mode as an option. It covers Meet and Teams as well, so a team that meets on several platforms gets one consistent recording tool. It is the pick when sharing a clip of what was said beats a tidy written recap, and the saved Zoom recording is handy when someone who skipped the call wants to watch the five minutes that concerned them rather than read the whole thing.

Beyond these four, the Zoom Marketplace and Chrome extensions add more choices. Tactiq transcribes the Zoom call from a browser extension without a bot, Krisp pairs note-taking with its noise cancellation, and other apps install directly from the Zoom Marketplace, all useful if you want capture without a separate desktop app, though the dedicated tools above generally produce richer summaries.

How to set up an AI notetaker on Zoom

The native route needs an admin to flip a switch once; the Marketplace route needs little more than a browser tab.

Turning on Zoom’s native notes:

1. Admin or owner: in the Zoom web portal settings, enable AI Companion and the meeting summary feature for your account.
2. Host, in the meeting: open the AI Companion control and start the meeting summary or My Notes.
3. After the call: Zoom emails the summary with next steps to the host and invitees.
4. If the control is missing: your account does not have AI Companion enabled, or you are on the free Zoom Basic tier, which does not include it.

Connecting a third-party notetaker needs no Zoom admin, and on Zoom it can be a true one-click install:

Step	What you do
1	Install the tool’s Zoom Marketplace app, or sign up and connect your calendar
2	Choose whether it auto-joins every meeting or you start it manually
3	Join your Zoom call; the bot joins too, or the app captures in the background
4	Read the summary and action items in the tool after the call

A bot-free tool like Granola skips the join step — you open it alongside Zoom and it captures the audio your computer plays — and an extension like Tactiq transcribes from your browser tab. However you go, your next Zoom call can take its own notes.

Bot or bot-free: which fits your Zoom calls?

The decision that matters most on Zoom is whether you want a recorder visible in the call, and Zoom raises the stakes because a meeting can quickly fill with everyone’s separate notetaker bots.

On a Zoom call	Visible bot	Bot-free
Tools	Fathom, Otter, tl;dv	Granola, Tactiq, native AI Companion
In the participant list	Yes	No
Captures if you step away	Yes, it joins the call	No, it needs your device
Best for	Internal calls, hands-off capture	External calls, a clean participant list

A visible bot, used by Fathom, Otter, and tl;dv, is the most reliable: it joins the Zoom call as a participant and captures everything even if your laptop sleeps or your tab closes. The downside is social as much as technical — on a client call, a box labelled as a recording bot can be awkward, and on a big internal call, several of them at once is the running joke of the Zoom era.

A bot-free approach — Granola, the extensions, or Zoom’s own AI Companion — keeps the participant list clean. Granola and the extensions capture what your device hears, so they are quiet but depend on you being in the call. AI Companion is the exception that is both bot-free and automated, which is a real point in the native option’s favour if you already pay for Zoom.

If your Zoom calls are internal and you want hands-off capture, a bot is fine. If they are external, or you simply do not want to add to the bot pile-up, lean bot-free, and Granola is the cleanest summary-quality option.

What should you know before turning one on?

An AI notetaker records and stores your conversations, so settle a few details before you let one into your Zoom calls.

Consent comes first. Recording crosses from a technical choice into a legal and social one. Two-party-consent regions generally require everyone’s agreement before a call is recorded, and announcing the notetaker is simply good manners anywhere. Zoom flags an active recording in the toolbar and a visible bot outs itself by joining, but a bot-free tool leaves no automatic banner, so on an external Zoom call the courtesy is yours to extend out loud.

Native may not meet compliance rules. Zoom AI Companion is convenient, but some regulated or HIPAA-bound environments do not approve the native AI for handling sensitive data, and some organizations vet which notetakers are allowed at all. If your calls touch regulated information, check your policy before turning anything on, native or third-party, since an approved third-party tool is sometimes permitted where the native AI is not, and sometimes the reverse, depending on the agreements your organization has in place.

Free does not mean unlimited. Among the third-party tools, free plans cap you differently. Otter’s free plan runs out at 300 minutes a month and limits a single call to 30, Granola’s free tier walls off your older notes and keeps no video to revisit, and only Fathom and tl;dv record without a cap for nothing. And remember the native AI Companion is only “free” once you are on a paid Zoom plan. Read the limits before a heavy week of calls.

Before you record on Zoom	Why it matters
Get consent	Two-party-consent regions require it; announce it either way
Check compliance	Native AI may not be approved for regulated data
Mind the bot pile-up	Several visible notetakers in one call is intrusive
Check the free limits	Otter caps 300 min/mo; Granola hides older history

Which AI notetaker should you use for Zoom?

On Zoom, the pick turns on your plan and your tolerance for bots:

• You already pay for a Zoom Workplace plan → use the native AI Companion. Its My Notes summary is included, runs inside Zoom, and lands in your inbox after the call.
• You are on free Zoom, or you want a genuinely free notetaker → Fathom, with its unlimited free plan and an official Zoom app.
• You want to avoid the crowd of notetaker bots → Granola, which captures the call with nothing in the participant list.
• You also meet on Google Meet or Teams → Fathom or tl;dv, so one tool covers every platform.
• You want a live transcript or to record in person → Otter, with its live captions and mobile app.

If you are unsure, the simplest path is the one most Zoom users overlook: check whether your paid Zoom plan already includes AI Companion before installing anything, and if it does not, start on Fathom’s free plan, which costs nothing and works on every platform. For the wider field, our best AI note taker roundup ranks the top picks side by side, and our Fathom and Otter pricing guides break down what each costs.

Final word

Zoom is the platform where the built-in option is most likely to be the right one, because AI Companion’s note-taking comes bundled with a paid Zoom plan rather than sold separately, so the first move is simply to check whether you already have it. If you do not — because you are on free Zoom, or you also meet on Google Meet and Teams — a third-party notetaker is the more flexible answer, and Fathom’s unlimited free plan and one-click Zoom app make it the one we would start with. Whichever you choose, the era of typing up the Zoom call by hand is over.